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Dance, dance wherever you may be

From October 2006 St. Thomas Super Shopper

“Smile. You’re looking awfully serious.” A seated friend directed this comment to me as we whirled by him at the Bill Sherry Dance.
Later, this same friend said, “I thought you had taken lessons. You looked like you were counting.”
Hardly the relaxed, smooth look we’ve been seeking.
But, yes, it is true. My name is Terry Carroll and I am a member of the Elgin Ballroom Dance Club.
Our instructors and the main founders of the club are Frome dairy farmer Ed Donkers and St. Thomas lawyer and community booster Hilary Vaughan.
Is this going on the third year that I’ve been at the beginner level of this club? That might be an indicator of something.
The eight dances we learn (or some people “learn”, i.e., those who move to the advanced class a.k.a., “Ed’s Special Ed Class”) are: waltz, foxtrot, rumba, cha-cha, swing, hustle, merengue and mambo.
A female acquaintance said her husband was interested until he viewed a couple performing a Latin dance. When he saw the way both the man and the woman moved their hips, that was it, for him.
In the Latin dances, yes, even the men are supposed to loosen their tushes.
It feels rather gay when you first attempt it—not that there’s anything wrong with that—but, then you remember, those Latin lover types do it all the time.
Last year, just when I thought I had nailed the beat for the merengue, I heard the silky voice of Hilary from behind me, “Terry, it’s not a march.”
To some of us it is.
At least until we get hip about it.